Advertisers, television producers, those involved in the movie business, and other media providers have an interest in understanding engagement levels of consumers with respect to their content, as granularly as possible. For instance, prior to a television pilot being aired by a broadcaster, the broadcaster typically holds a preview for such pilot that is viewed by a test group. Members of the test group are monitored to ascertain their respective levels of engagement as to the pilot program in its entirety as well as to respective levels of engagement as to particular portions of the pilot, particular actors, etc. Generally, members of the test group are requested to set forth explicit feedback regarding their perception of the pilot program, actors included therein, advertisements that may be effective when paired with such program, etc.
In other examples, companies provide surveys to television viewers asking such viewers to provide their respective feedback about certain programs. Additionally, television ratings are monitored to ascertain popularity thereof, where fees charged to advertisers is often a function of popularity of content with respect to which an advertisement is to be presented. Surveys, however, are relatively easily manipulated, and as more and more people time shift their viewing of television programs (e.g., through viewing content through an Internet-connected application, through utilization of a digital video recorder (DVR), . . . ), it has become increasingly difficult to accurately determine popularity of a program.
Furthermore, with respect to an individual person, there currently exists no suitable technique for determining an interest level of the person with respect to the content being presented thereto. For example, the person may be presented with a television program or movie, and the person may pay very little attention to such television program or movie. An advertiser may wish to target the advertisement to the person when engaged versus when the person is not engaged.